James Stoddard, The High House (Warner
Aspect, 1998)James Stoddard, The False House (Warner
Aspect, 2000)

Welcome to the House that God built. Evenmere, the High
House, that unending ever-changing building which crosses and
contains worlds. It is, and represents, all Creation, an
enigma, a parable, a mystery. Within its halls and rooms,
passages and basements, attics and terraces, are the undreamt worlds,
the lands of dream, places like Ooz and Innman Tor and Arkalen.
The House bridges upon our own world, but is far more than a
house. It just Is.

The High House demands a master. Carter Anderson, returned
after a long exile, may be that Master. Or perhaps his
half-brother Duskin, born to the conniving Lady Murmur, will take up
the Tawny Mantle, Lightning Sword, and Master Keys, and reign over
the Inner Chambers, the White Circle, and all the other realms of the
High House. The House chooses its own, you see. It
chooses the Master to watch over it, to maintain peace, to uphold
ancient treaties, to combat the enemies which lurk at the outside
gates and threaten to taint and warp all Creation for their own
needs.

There is Brittle, the ancient butler, who has seen generations of
Masters in his time. Chant, the Lamp-Lighter, who sees to it
that all the myriad lights and lamps and flames of the universe are
not snuffed. Enoch, the immortal Windkeep, responsible for the
many clocks of Evenmere. These three are as much a part of the
House as it is of them. They must guide and aide Carter as he
seeks to become worthy of the mantle of Master. As he seeks the
mystery of his lost father, quests for the lost Sword and Mantle and
Keys and the Seven Words of Power. As he defies the last
dinosaur, Jormangand, who rules the attic of Evenmere and devours
those foolish enough to trespass. As he journeys beyond the
Green Door, and into parts unknown...

The High House is full of vast concepts, maddening
paradoxes and intriguing images. A House so vast, so
contemptuous of the laws of time and space, that it stretches across
all Creation, containing entire countries within its halls? A
society of anarchists who oppose the House with every breath, seeking
to master its power for themselves? Man-eating furniture,
eternally preyed upon by intelligent tigers? A library which
leads to other realms? The possibilities are endless, and the
core idea audacious in its immensity. This is one of those
ideas I wish I'd thought of first.

There's something almost old-school about The High House,
hearkening back to MacDonald and Dunsany and Carroll and Baum.
The language, while stilted and odd at times, reads with an old
flavor to it, evoking the language of the past. The names of
the countries, places like Shyntagwin, Ephiny, High Gable, and
Anwerr, are strongly reminiscent of Baum's own place names. The
concept of a physical House representing the abstract notion of all
Creation, that's the sort of thing C.S. Lewis might have thought up
in an off moment.

The mystery only grows with the sequel, The False
House. Carter Anderson, now the Master of Evenmere in his
own right, has finally defeated the anarchists, for a time, and begun
to return order to the House after the chaos they created.
Entire countries lie devastated and desolate, in need of
assistance. Outright rebellion still grips at least one
province. And one of his most trusted allies has died for the
cause. However, the future looks bright when he meets someone
he could very easily fall in love with. But the High House
doesn't believe in happily ever after... and the anarchists steal
away a young girl as part of a long-reaching plan to replace
Evenmere.

Skip forward some years, to when it all comes to a head.
Somewhere out in Oblivion, in the Outer Darkness where the House no
longer reaches, someone has raised a False House, and begun the
process of transforming vast numbers of people into clockwork
perfection. They've stolen away the House's source of power,
and now Carter, his brother Duskin, and a small team must travel
beyond the House, to prevent the destruction of all they know.
But among them lurk traitors, anarchists who will betray them all at
the worst time...

The Evenmere series is mind-boggling in its own way, the literary
equivalent of M.C. Escher. The inside and outside of the House,
interior and exterior, rooms and caverns, terraces and plains, walls
and forests, are intertwined, so that it's impossible to
differentiate the two. Though it starts off slowly, slowly
enough to make me despair at first, the mystery and the sheer scope
of the story soon captivated me. The language is rich and
whimsical, poetic and lyrical in a style one doesn't seen often these
days. It's no light read, true, but a challenge to be
enjoyed. It's a mixture of epic fantasy, high adventure, and
conceptual capriciousness. Evenmere is what you would get if
you dropped the Winchester Mystery House into a giant mirror maze,
and left it alone for a few decades.

In the end, The High House and The False House
comprise one epic, fascinating story stretching across all that could
be, and all that is. It's new fantasy with a classic influence
and a mythical resonance. While they won't be to everyone's
tastes, I have to admit that James Stoddard has indeed produced
something special. Evenmere stands a good chance of achieving a
lasting status in the worlds of fantasy, and I really look forward to
seeing more set in the same world. The possibilities for
prequels, sequels, and other stories set in Evenmere are as endless
as its corridors.